How Artists Play The Festival Game Unwritten Rules For Show Business

September 26, 1986|By Laura Stewart Dishman , Sentinel Art Critic

Until he learned to choose among the dozens of art festivals held in Florida each year, Winter Springs photographer Robert Eginton had some bad seasons. The worst was the year he and his wife, painter Barbara Tiffany- Eginton, were in shows 14 weekends in a row.

Never again, said Eginton. ''We ended up just about dead.'' Another festival season will get under way this weekend with the 20th annual Osceola Art Festival in Kissimmee. Between Saturday and late spring of next year, thousands of artists will set up displays at about 200 festivals. They will show their works for sale to the public, and they will compete for hundreds of thousands of prize dollars awarded by the judges. The winners will be the artists who know the unwritten rules of the festivals.

The Egintons learned not to take on too many festivals in one season. They rely on word-of-mouth information to determine which shows draw the largest crowds and generate the most sales and which will be visited by prominent judges. They learned how to rate the shows, how to judge the judges and how to appeal to the judges' tastes.

It generally takes three years for an artist to learn how to choose a festival well, said Orlando jeweler Mark Meifert. In 1978, his first festival season, he chose by word of mouth.

''As you progress, you get pickier,'' Eginton said. ''You want to do the big shows, naturally. In the fall, it's the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival, the Ocala show and maybe the Festival of the Masters at Walt Disney World. In the spring, it's the Coconut Grove festival, the Gasparilla show in Tampa and the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival.

''You just kind of fill in around those with shows where you might know a judge, where the prize money or sales are good - or where you have someone to stay with,'' Eginton said.

Although artists find out about festivals from advertisements, publications and mailings, many select shows by reputation, said Sanford furniture-maker John Wesley Williams.

''My main consideration is the show's prestige in terms of the people who live in an area,'' he said. ''The Winter Park sidewalk show may not be the best, but people consider it to be the best and so they go. That means it has great crowds, so it is good for sales.''

Mark Meifert uses a more refined method.

''I try to find someone whose work is similar to mine - similar, that is, in terms of who will buy it,'' he said. ''Then I ask about the reputation of the show and the class of people who will come to it.

''Mostly, I consider the number of people who attend. Last year, there were 800,000 people at the Coconut Grove festival. The more people who attend, the more likely it is that some of those people will like your style,'' he said. ''I pick festivals where the most people who are likely to like my work will be and then I sell it to them.''

Bob Eginton believes that sales are less important to artists than having their work tagged by the judges. Recognition is what counts most, he said.

''If you've won at Gasparilla, it really means something. Prize money is second, and the third most important factor in choosing a festival is the crowds.''

Tony Eitharong, an Orlando artist whose drawings have won many top awards since 1974, shows at festivals where he's most likely to take awards, not to sell. He remembers every judge he's ever dealt with, and he knows just what they like. His is a winning method.

''I pick the shows for the prize money, so I pick them for the judges,'' said Eitharong, with a laugh. ''I find out who's judging a show and then if they're new to me, I make a few phone calls to friends in their areas to see what they're like. I try to figure out if they'll like my work. If I decide they might, I enter the festival.

''It's a gamble, but I like to gamble. It's just a game,'' he said. ''You throw down your money, figure out your handicap and you take your chances.''